US markets gain on Greece austerity deal

10 Feb 2012 Evaluate

The US markets closed higher for a third day in a row on Thursday, as Greek politicians agreed on austerity plans needed to qualify for international aid and US jobless claims decreased. In Athens, Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos stated that the government’s talks with international creditors had concluded successfully. This program accompanies the new loan agreement to finance Greece with 130 billion euros. The statement from Papademos came after days of haggling among Greece’s main political parties. Besides, European Central Bank left its key lending rate at 1%. Separately, Bank of England left its key lending rate at 0.5% and expanded its bond purchase program, which is essentially printing more money, by 50 billion pounds to 325 billion pounds. However, ECB President Mario Draghi did not clarify what is the position of the central bank if it will participate in Greek debt swap.

In US, the Labor Department’s count of Americans filing initial claims for jobless benefits dropped by 15,000 last week to 358,000. The four-week moving average fell to 366,250, its lowest since April 2008. Also, Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and three other US banks reached a $25 billion settlement with 49 states and the federal government to end a probe of abusive foreclosure practices stemming from the collapse of the housing bubble. In what the US called the largest federal-state civil settlement in the nation’s history, the banks have committed $20 billion in various forms of mortgage relief plus payments of $5 billion to state and federal governments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 6.51 points, or 0.05 percent, at 12,890.50. The S&P 500 was up by 1.99 points, or 0.15 percent, at 1,351.95, while the Nasdaq closed up 11.37 points, or 0.39 percent, at 2,927.23.

Indian ADRs closed mixed on Thursday, Tata Motors was up 0.86%, Infosys Technologies was up by 0.57% and HDFC Bank was up by 0.40%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down by 0.03% and Tata Communications was down by 0.02%.

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